Questions Linger After Death of Yale Teacher in Police Custody

When Samuel See was found dead in a New Haven jail cell last month, nine hours after being put there after a domestic dispute with his husband, the question was how did he die, a disquieting mystery that remains unsolved.

Faculty members and students at Yale University, where he was an admired assistant professor of English, were shaken and openly mourned the abrupt, inexplicable conclusion to his life. Investigations are now examining the circumstances of his death, to see if he had been ill or injured and determine whether the authorities bore any blame. He was 34.

In the weeks that have passed, equally puzzling questions have arisen about just who Mr. See was and how many lives he led.

Was he a hip, beloved college professor enmeshed in discord with the man he had recently married? Was he someone battling crippling health and emotional problems? Or was he a gay hustler, brazenly posting explicit pictures of himself on male escort websites in pursuit of sexual encounters?

From the incomplete pieces that have thus far emerged, it seems he was all of those things.

Over at least the last year, according to people who knew him, the once outgoing Mr. See had become withdrawn. He told one professor that he was H.I.V. positive; a friend said Mr. See believed he had bipolar disorder; and several people said he seemed depressed. In the last year and a half, according to Frank Anastasio, a neighbor, ambulances took Mr. See from his apartment at least half a dozen times. Another neighbor said an ambulance came for him the day before his arrest. At the time, Mr. See was on an unpaid leave.

Jill Campbell, a Yale English professor and friend of Mr. See’s, said she had watched him undergo an alarming change in the last year. “I think he was overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety and inadequacy and shame,” she said. “I had dinner with him a year ago, and the difference from even earlier that fall was really striking. He just wasn’t present in the way he had been.”

Among the problems weighing on him, she said, were the death of a close relative, the strains of his marriage, his health and the acute pressure to perform for tenure review.

In May, Mr. See married Sunder Ganglani, 32, who had attended the Yale School of Drama and was a teaching assistant during the 2011-12 academic year. The marriage had run into serious turbulence. In September, both men were arrested after a fight, and orders of protection were issued mandating that they stay apart.

On Nov. 23, a Saturday evening, the police were called to Mr. See’s apartment to address a domestic dispute. According to a police summary, Mr. Ganglani came to the house to collect belongings. When the police arrived, Mr. See told them to remove Mr. Ganglani. Because both of them had orders of protection, the police arrested both men. Mr. See became furious and fought with an officer. As he was steered to a police car, Mr. See, according to the summary, yelled at one of the officers, “I will kill you — I will destroy you.”

He somehow got a cut above his eye that was treated at a hospital.

Mr. See was charged with violating a protective order and threatening and interfering with the police. He was put in a detention center under the care of state judicial marshals at 9:10 p.m. At 6 a.m. the next morning, he was found “nonresponsive” and soon after he was pronounced dead.

A spokesman for the New Haven police would not comment on the case, saying it remained under investigation. The coroner has yet to declare a cause of death, though trauma was ruled out.

Reached for comment, Mr. Ganglani said that despite reports to the contrary, “I’ve never been living elsewhere. There was no separation.” About his relationship with Mr. See, he said, “He was a remarkable human being in every sense of the word. I admired him and am so grateful to have been loved by him.”

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Samuel See, an assistant professor of English at Yale.

Mr. See’s effect on those who encountered him at Yale was considerable. Hannah Zeavin, a student of his who graduated last year, spoke of “the amazing quality of learning with, being in community with Sam.” She added, “Every single interaction was generative and vitalizing and opened up new possibilities.”

Nathan Brown, a longtime friend of Mr. See’s who said his understanding was that doctors had diagnosed bipolar disorder, said, “Literally every person he met loved him,” adding, “He was truly brilliant. I think he was going to have a truly distinguished academic career.”

In his research, Mr. See wrote about Darwin’s influence on modernist novelists and the way “queer feeling” came to be depicted as a natural part of the world.

Joseph Roach, a Yale English and drama professor and friend, said Mr. See was very generous. “He could laugh at himself and get you to laugh at yourself as well,” he said. “When you ran into Sam, the day went better.”

Katie Trumpener, a Yale comparative literature and English professor who considered Mr. See a dear friend, said he told her and others that he was H.I.V. positive, but bound them to secrecy. In April, Mr. Ganglani wrote to alert her that Mr. See had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Later, Mr. See told her how “it was like being tortured to be there.”

After not having seen Mr. See in a while, he rang Ms. Trumpener’s bell about two months ago. “He said he had further physical problems and his doctor thought he had perhaps had a small stroke,” she said. “He said he was having terrible hallucinations and he feared that he might harm his husband inadvertently, because he wouldn’t be able to tell fantasy from reality.”

She said he mentioned that because of a possible stroke it would take him an entire day to unload the dishwasher. A month later, Ms. Trumpener said, he sent an email reporting that new medications had halted the hallucinations.

Mr. See grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., and Ms. Trumpener said that he withdrew from his undergraduate studies at Amherst College when he became bulimic and had a breakdown. He completed his education in the California public system.

Sorting through the dimensions of his identity, though, has left some colleagues who loved him to wonder how well they really knew him.

Under the name Ryan Cochran, Mr. See advertised his availability on multiple gay escort websites, sometimes with explicit pictures of himself. A Twitter account for Ryan Cochran has his picture on it, and counts Mr. Ganglani as one of its followers.

On one site, Mr. See described himself in part: “I’m a professional, well-educated, sexually limitless escort working out of New Haven.”

None of his colleagues or friends who were asked about him said they knew of these activities. How long he may have pursued them or whether he earned money from them are unclear. One of the sites had reviews from presumed clients, including “Ryan is very hot” and “Ryan is simply a god.”

Ms. Campbell, his English professor friend, received an email from Mr. See in mid-October. It mentioned a “bumpy month,” a third hospitalization since April and a “slow march toward wellness.” He ended with the hope of seeing her and “giving you the warmest hug I can muster.”

After hearing of Mr. See’s death, Ms. Trumpener said she wrote Mr. Ganglani. His reply was: “He was everything to me.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A32 of the New York edition with the headline: Questions Linger After Death of Yale Teacher in Police Custody. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe